Riley watched Miyuki's flight with a look of interest on her face. Her mantle tingled as it sinced a swell of magic coming from the girl and the Stage Magician assumed the older girl had some sort of ace up her sleeve to make the move decidedly unsuicidal.

Riley's eyes got wider though as the other girl was caught by a giant bubble of clean and sparkling water that only ended with a joyous splash instead of blood, sweat, and terror.

In fact, Riley thought as she continued to examine the whole situation, Her way seemed rather fun.

Fun methods aside, though, Miyuki herself did not look to be enjoying the afternoon and with all the magic in area having whipped up some rather thick cloud formations she was looking at being wet and a bit chilly for quite a bit if someone didn't do something.

â€œPer-â€ Riley started to form the idea that maybe Aurus could help dry off the girl, but â€“ well â€“ it would be Aurus and that would not be a fun method even if it didn't burn her to a crisp in the process of â€œdryingâ€ her. More like turning the poor, mentally over-taxed girl into jerky.

Summoning her knitted maw, Riley crouched on the ground and concentrated. The little hand puppet slowly bleached of colour, turning a pale white, and then hardened. Now resembling one of her blank masks more than the cute hand puppet she so loved Riley frowned for a second trying to remember how she was supposed to make this sort of magic work.

Slowly the rigid little dragon head formed an illusionary, snaking body that curled around her arm as it formed. When the tip of the tail finally become solid â€“ or at least as solid as a semi-transparent illusion can be â€“ and the last scale formed on its tiny legs the creature unfurled large, leathery looking wings from the moments before plain expanse of its back.

Coming off her hand and taking flight with a few experimental flaps the little white headed and see-through bodied dragon floated before its maker. Stumbling to her feet Riley fought off mixed feelings of light-headedness and exultation.

Licking her lips, Riley closed her eyes, and concentrated once more. Praying and thinking as hard as she could the Stage Magician hoped she had gotten this all right. Opening her eyes with a bit of trepidation, Riley was over-joyed to see that her little creature had already swooped past Percy and was hover above Miyuki breathing a warm current of air â€“ much like a very strong hair dryer â€“ over the girl to dry her off.

Sakura gave a shake of the head, her vision cloudy to where she didn't notice Miyuki falling off the roof. When the cobwebs cleared enough for her to be able to think straight, how she could actually think about was the tormenting headache she had right now and how it was playing havoc on her ability to concentrate. Need to get off the roof, she glanced off into the distance before getting up on shaky legs and walking over to the edge and going down onto one knee.

Looking over, she could see Miyuki on the ground and sighed before shaking her head again. Then she got back up, still on wobbly legs as she staggered back and forth and shakingly held her bow. She was checked to see if the air runes on her shoes were still there, and found that they were; but she could tell that the magic in them was almost spent so only one flight would be left before she'd have to completely replace them.

Taking a few steps back, she burst into a run and jumped off the roof, then fell toward the ground as a burst of outlined magic appeared out of her shoes and fluttered slightly as her decent was slowed. When she touched the ground, she staggered a bit more before collasping onto one knee. What happened that has caused me to be so tired? Never felt this way before.. she thought while taking some short breaths to keep herself from passing out.

"Conflict resolved!~" Coco cheered, pumping both of her massive combat arms into the air as Sakura slowly recovered from the heavy blow, nursing a rapidly bruising eye. "Now, the whole reason I even showed up was because SOMEBODY broke the big rule - never, ever, EVER use magic in public without a suppression field!" she pouted at the highschool kids, looking up at them angrily as her combat arms dispelled. "Especially you!" the little girl pointed to Sakura. "What were you thinking, shooting arrows at people? What if it hit someone in the - " Coco's eyes went wide in horror as Miyuki simply did the most incomprehensible thing. "Quick Duncan!" She childishly commanded, finger up in the air as she demanded her older brother's attention. "Fire up the spell circle! Gather up the magical capacitors! We have a body to revive!"

When no reply came immediately however, she started to look confused. Then frightened as she started to desperately look about for him. "Duncan? Duncan, where are you?" she called out with unseeing eyes, now starting to sniffle a bit with worry.

A hand darted up and grabbed the Chibi-Modeka by the face. "Not. Your brand. No thanks," a rather hoarse voice spoke up. Rolling over onto his back, Duncan reached up to bring a hand to his throat, and with a few uttered words, made a very minor spell that allowed them all to hear him at once. "I'm fine Coco. Good to see your doing swell. Do me a favor and help me up - we need to all go, before local authority decides to finally rear its head and things get worse." The then addressed the others. "Please come along and hear me out, yeah?"

Her face lighting up at the sound of his voice, Coco could only offer a single reply as she bounded off to his side. "Surething!"

*****

After a short walk, with Coco helping Duncan limp along, they all boarded one of the city's trains - oddly enough, the car was empty save for the lot of them despite it being the typical rush hour where everyone fought to get home. As soon as they were inside however, the little girl started feeding him a mana stream; a smile they only saw at night time appeared on his face as he rose, reinvigorated. It wasn't a very nice smile to say the least. "Well, I said I'd start talking as soon as we got on the train, so I'll start," Duncan began, clasping his hands together with an arrogant sneer. "I'm looking for something here in Japan, but things will get a lot harder for me if any of you die - especially if one of you is associated with a larger organization. So here's the deal - I'm a teacher of magic, and I'll offer to you all some of my tutelage on one condition." The American boy looked over their ranks with a predatory grin. "Don't die. So, what do you all say? If it's a no of course, you can walk right out the train's doors before they close. You got a few mome - "

Duncan's speech was suddenly caught short as Coco wailed on him with her backpack, the impacts hitting far harder than should have been possible as something weighed the bag down. "Duncan! Don't talk like such a big meanie!" she pouted at him, leaping onto one of the seats to get a better swinging angle at his head. "That's not nice! Be like earlier!" she went on, pelting him with the heavy bag as he desperately tried to shield himself with his arms.

"Alright! Geeze!" Duncan yelled back from his position on the floor. Gingerly picking himself back up and nursing his head a little, he started over again. "Ok, so we' gotta deal with this CaorÃ¡nach; I'm offering lessons to power you guys up before we face it again - you guys wanna sign up?" he asked with a more proper smile.

"That's more like it!" Coco smiled as well, revealing a missing tooth.

Part of Sakura wanted to get out of there, but another part wanted to find out what was going on. She'd never encountered anyone else who used magic, but the words that flowed into her mind 'don't trust anyone else who uses magic, they'll just use you..' ringed clearly; however she just ignored it. Something about this group seemed different, perhaps it was because they were - despite being teenagers, with the exception of Coco, kids.

Her eyes darted to Duncan as he spoke, then to her bow as it whispered to her.

~"Follow them.. you are safe with them"~

She would've shrugged her shoulders, had her shoulders not been hurting. Weakly she stood up, still a bit wobbly in the legs as she slowly trodded behind the group as they headed to the train station. Once on the train, she plopped down into one of the many available seats, and removed her trench coat to reveal a pair of light blue sweat pants with a red trim along the sides, with a matching styled sweat shirt with a turtle neck. The left arm of the shirt was a dark reddish color, indicating that she had somehow injured herself during the earlier scuffle. She began to search through the pocket of the coat, but blinked a few times when she noticed that both of the inside pockets were empty, the arrows she already knew she had expanded; but she realized that she was missing three runes she had in reserve. "Huh?" she looked into the pockets, noticing that they were empty. What happened to the spares? she pondered before shrugging, thinking that they probably fell out somewhere.

Listening to Duncan's request, she raised an eye-brow when she saw the little girl smack him one across the back of the head and how his demenor changed. When he finished his request, she leaned back in the chair and pondered how to answer it. If I follow them, I won't be able to do what I normally do each night, but if I don't follow them; I'll have to deal with my 'fake' father and his abuse.. she closed her eyes and waited to see what the others might say, though something that Coco said earlier was floating in that head of hers, what did that girl mean by Suppression Field though?

When Percy asked Miyuki if she was okay, the girl just rolled over on her spot and ignored him, however, fate didn't seem to want to let Miyuki lie here in her puddle of misery, as Riley cam by and dried off the water, leaving Miyuki annoyed and not soaking in water, which had actually been strangely soothing, despite it not being a warm, sudzy bubble-bath. And then people started moving. Miyuki Groaned, and then got up.

She followed the group, somewhat miserably. She had since changed back into her regular clothes (thankfully the transition was easy, thanks to magic) and was dry, though her hair was still in quite a mess, though thankfully no longer standing on end. Once they had arrived on the train, she had sat down sulkily and reached into her bag, pulling out a Breakfast Bears Breakfast Bar, and beginning to munch on it as she listened disinterestedly to Duncan speaking. And then Coco smacked him, and he became his usual daytime fake-polite self. Miyuki had long since stopped believing the mage's daytime charade, she could tell from the way the boy acted that he was faking it, but she didn't give enough care to say anything about it.

When Duncan asked for volunteers, Miyuki raised her hand, though not to join; she had a question. "Unn, Why should we trust you and what you say? Especially after your sister attacked us. And, who are these other people tagging along?" Miyuki pointed to Sakura, Haruka, and Hanabi, though she didn't know any of their names.

It was, for Duncan, the moment of truth. If even so much as one of the noobs accepted, it would mean he'd become a teacher again. As much as a proper education about magic would help these others, as they were incredibly sloppy, it wasn't something that Duncan really wanted to do. Oh yes, it'd make it so that these guys and girls were far less likely to throw up big, stupid signs with their magic that said "I'm Right Here and I'm a(n) (insert school/type of magic) User" and/or die, either or both of which would draw attention to the area he was operating in, but it was still something he quite frankly didn't want to do. As he watched them carefully, he knew that this was most likely going to quite possibly end up as one of those important, 'life changing decisions' that they'd make. In fact, this was so important that -

- the Druid guy was chatting up the Mahou Shojou. Duncan couldn't help but feel rather annoyed at this. Really! Of all times, did he have to make a move now?

"Pst, what's that over there?" Koko suddenly asked, drawing the attention of everybody other than the talking couple as she pointed at something behind the small crowd in front of Duncan. The moment they all turned, the little girl reached into her pack and pulled out a trio of water balloons, putting one in her older brother's hand before tossing the other two, one apiece, at Ruarc and HeartPure. "He did it!" she declared, pointing an accusatory finger at Duncan.

Before Ruarc was able to get a response to his inquiry a water balloon collided with the side of his head. This soaked his already dampened hair and shoulder further, as well as knocked his glasses askew. Upon adjusting his glasses he promptly spun on his heel to figure out where it had come from and who was responsible. Sure enough, as soon as he took a look he spotted Duncan with another balloon in his hand, accompanied by an accusation from one of the new young girls who had shown up all of a sudden. Given that he was already somewhat wet from his previous dive through a water wall the druid was not as irked as he might have been otherwise.

After picked bits of balloon from his hair he proceeded to make long, purposeful strides towards the young American, and stopped directly in front of the lad with about a foot and a half separating them. Standing more than a foot taller than Duncan, Ruarc locked eyes before reaching down and grabbing the remaining balloon. With the water filled bubble in hand he raised it over Duncanâ€™s head, and squeezed it causing it to pop and rain its content down onto the otherâ€™s hair.

â€œAlright buachaill, ya got my attention,â€ Ruarc said, growling a bit. With his business done he took a step back, but maintained an intimidating posture with his arms crossed. â€œAhâ€™d ask if politely calling would be too much ta ask, but for you, it might just be.â€

Percy slumped against the holding rail in the train-car, eyeing the rest of the group warily. On his head was his signature beret, clean and well-kept save for the rest of himself. He looked a bit dirtied, as if he had just been in a fight, and weary to match. On his back, was a heavy looking satchel, filled with books. On his front? Well, Zulan was strapped in on his chest in a baby-carrier. The little Water God was wearing a blue-tunic, ornately designed, with her hair tied up into two short pig-tails. With a determined face, she tore through a pack of crackers as she watched everyone else in the car. Percival almost regretted agreeing to this form allowing Zulan to exist pertinently in the world.

"And what about those of us who are already schooled in the arts? I was a student at the Gwynedd Academy in Wales." answered the boy holding up a hand, which seemed to cue Zulan to hold up one of her crackers and sound-off with him, before tearing into the cheesy bits again.

He simply stared back at the taller boy defiantly at first. Koko, you...

As Duncan just began to open his mouth to hand a few sharp words of his own at Ruarc, it was Percival that quickly put forward a serious question of his own. The American boy's attention quickly shifted. Gwynedd Academy, huh? Must be pretty subpar is he's all they could churn out. He gave the other boy a smile that was not pleasant before replying. "Well, it's not a 'how-to' kind of class - rather, I'm going to make it so that your magic is simply better. Think of it as an 'advanced usage' class rather than a 'fundamentals' one, because right now, you in particular," he began to answer, pointing at the other boy, "You're going through magic like a fat kid in an icecre- Urk!"

Koko had, very noticeably, cut off the flow of mana she was giving to Duncan, causing him to wince in pain as the curse suddenly took hold again without her magic to abate it. What's more, a red ribbon reached out of Koko's pack and handed her a stencil and crayons. "You're going through magic at a very fast pace - even if you have lots of it, none of you guys are exactly using it really effectively," he explained in a much nicer tone and smile.

"Yeah, it's kinda like this here!" the little girl exclaimed, holding up her sketch for them all to see. "It's like a homemade potato gun that's all leaky and stuff," she picked up the explanation, pointing to the doodle of Duncan holding said potato gun. "You guys gotta use lots of air to get the potato to go just thiiiiiiiiis much, which is a waste when you could patch up all the holes and have it go waaaaaaaay further with the same amount of gas!" As she spoke, the little image showed just that happening as the little doodle of Duncan moved to inefficiently fire the potato with the leaky launcher, then duct taping it up and trying again - a baked potato suddenly smashed into the side of the compartment they were in, Koko looking completely oblivious as to what happened.

"Right, and you gotta keep in mind you're using a lot more magic than really necessary to do what you want," Duncan added, eyeballing the splattered potato for a moment. "You can run out really easily at how things are currently going," he explained. "And, if something goes wrong, it'll go really wrong since there's so much magic around in the first place." The canvas doodle tried firing again, but promptly ran out of gas, as the potato scribble flubbed out of the barrel and plopped onto the ground at Koko's feet. Though the Duncan-Scribble reloaded, the next attempt promptly had the canvas burst into flames.

â€So Duncan wants to teach how to be better mages. Hmm, I wonder how much of this comes from concern and how much of it comes from wanting to feel self-important?â€ Ruarc asked inwardly out of habit, but he frowned slightly when he remembered that he was just musing to himself now. All that considered the American did have a point. While he couldnâ€™t speak for the others, he himself casted spells with all the finesse of somebody swinging a large branch as a weapon.

Before the Druid could voice a response to Duncan, his little assistant appeared to be in a spot of trouble. She cast about for a water balloon so as to put out her drawing that had somehow caught fire. Though he no longer had a water balloon he did have something close. Reaching out, Ruarc grabbed the sketch from Kokoâ€™s hand and laid it flat in the palm of one of his hands, and clamped the other hand down on top of the burning portion until he was sure the small flame was extinguished. Once he was sure it was out he handed it back to the young girl.

â€œSorry it wasnâ€™t a water balloon, but thereâ€™re benefits ta havinâ€™ some callouses; that anâ€™ my hand is still a little damp from when Ah broke the last balloon,â€ Ruarc said to Koko as he showed the palm of his hands, which were a little reddened by having made contact with the flames. With that taken care of he turned his attention back to Duncan.
â€œAs much as Ahâ€™d like ta say otherwise, ya have a point,â€ he said begrudgingly to Duncan.